Once again controversy and rumor are going hand in hand with Hampton Roads and soccer in their little corner of Virginia. So far this season Coach McDonald has had a tough time of it on the field and everyone involved with this version of the Mariners is having a tough time of it off of the field. The city is breathing down the team's neck for their cut of the Sportsplex money and some are insinuating that the relationship between this incarnation of the men's soccer team in this area is butting heads with the women's professional team. Does any of this sound just a bit familiar to anyone who's beginning to wonder why they spend a beautiful coastal Virginia evening watching this team when Virginia Beach is so close by?
I find myself wondering just how this city seems to continually get screwed on issues that shouldn't be issues. There is a wonderful facility in place at the Sportsplex, from what I know the youth soccer is good in the area, and there once seemed to be a good bit of loyal support for the professional soccer teams in the neighborhood. So what exactly has gone wrong in that neck of the woods?
There are many reasons behind the downturn in soccer fortunes in Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach over the last four years but of course, perhaps, it's best to keep an eye on what is currently going wrong to evaluate the situation being dealt with at the moment. For instance, last week Scott Goodman was reassigned from his General Manager's post to a position in which he is supposed to hunt down funds and sponsorship for the team. In an article appearing in the Virginian-Pilot online edition by Harry Minium, (www.pilotonline.com) Goodman also openly admitted to making some hiring mistakes. Now the team is cleaning house in the front office. You have to wish the man the best of luck but in his current position this job will be particularly tough to pull off. After all, he'll be trying to sell possible investors on the idea of handing over cash to a money pit that hasn't won any games and has not drawn the kind of numbers those 'running' the team thought they'd see.
I'm sure some of you loyal Mariners fans will be upset that I've just called your club a money pit but face it, that's pretty much what every professional soccer team happens to be here in the United States. This sponsorship money should have been secured before opening the club back up for business and if that meant sitting out 2002 then so be it. Why rush the product back without the proper finances when all parties realize that it could wind up putting Hampton Roads in the same exact position the city was in after the 2000 season?
Then there's the matter of a yet to be paid line of credit (as cited in the previously mentioned Pilot article) to the city that still has not surfaced out of the Mariners' office. Also from the Virginian-Pilot, "The team's New York ownership group has not filed a required $300,000 letter of credit with the city, and has been unable to find additional investors. " This also leads one to question the team's ability to pay the league the money it may be owed.
Now I understand that the USL likes having teams in the A-League and that investors that seem to have the reputation and appearance of stability are attractive but what is the deal with teams being extended ridiculously long grace periods for money they should have already given the league just to have the rights to a team? Really, why should anyone running another team in the USL think that this should go on? I wager that they don't think that it should happen this way or that if it's going to be allowed to happen then the league needs to be up front about it. I realize, though, that the entire American economy has taken a hit but at the same time the running and financing of a professional sports team at this level should at least have some form of reliable backup plan so as to avoid these kinds of situations.
The main reason I take issue with this is the fact that I've seen the preliminary numbers and requirements by which teams are bought and born. In every instance the money is supposed to be paid up front in order to buy the rights to a team and gain that team entrance into the league. Why, then, is it that every single time a team folds the few facts that come out mention that the ownership owed the league and stadium owners money that should have been paid at the start of the process? Call me naïve but I assume that when you buy into something you actually pay for it and, more often than not, you pay for it up front. Yet I digress from the crux of the matter which is actually the soccer community of this coastal region of Virginia.
Hampton Roads deserves a better end than the one that is likely to come their way unless the current ownership pulls of a coup and pulls the local businesses that should be supporting the Mariners into the situation. Right now that is a very tough sell with the state of affairs that currently exists but it can be done. If it does happen I'll be among the first to stand up and applaud a job that would be as impressive as any act Harry Houdini ever pulled off. If the fans continue to support this reincarnation it is only fitting that they get at least another year but let's just hope it is a far smoother ride than they've had so far.
Send your comments to the author or
Join us to discuss this article at usldiscussions.com
